For a long time I have loved reading other bloggers life updates and generally just learning little everyday things about them. I have wanted to write something similar about me and my life, and the little things I have been getting up to recently and discovered that have brought me joy. I suppose I did this to an extent last year with my #MyHeartyLife posts, but where those posts focussed mostly on being grateful and seeing the good in each week, these new “Life Lately” posts will appear towards the end of each month/turn of the month and will be a place where I can round up my month outside of our family life and adventures. I want to share with you the general things I have loved this month and being up to. I want to show you all of the places I have been and what I have loved in that month. I want to share what I have read, watched, seen and listened to, what I have bought, and my thoughts on these things. I hope you will enjoy digging a little deeper into my everyday.
So here is my life lately, in January 2019.
This month I have potty trained Alice, got my eyebrows waxed (hallelujah) had a lovely weekend away in London with Nathan and joined our community Choir – all things (aside from the eyebrows) which I have noticed can be ticked off this years goal list (go me)! I have enjoyed seeing my friends at the Village quiz night 2 weeks ago and for a brunch and country walk the other friday too. I have passed my first assignment on “Counselling Theory” and have unfortunately had to take some days to recover from illness. Life right now is pretty busy, but it feels mostly good.
I am going through a few personal things at the moment which had been quite unnerving and in some ways stressful (don’t worry I’m not dying!) so that has been taking up a lot of head space, but aside from this situation, this month has mostly been taken up with thinking about how much I need the sunshine and warmth in my life. Winter is pretty but I am most definitely a Summer bird!
Loving
This month I have been loving Chocolate orange Smarties (50p in poundland – hello), plenty of Netflix from my sick bed, my new dungarees and then tassel earrings are still a winning choice! I am also loving my Monday nights with my new Choir crew. Choir has been a fun start to the week and whilst sometimes that means we don’t get home til gone 11pm because we stay for a catch up and drink by the fire in the pub, it has been a nice social scene. I have found some of the songs challenging and a little weird, but it is helping me grow in my abilities – maybe.
Watching
I am quite a big “watcher” of things and this month has been no different. Together Nathan and I have been watching “The World’s Toughest Prisons” on Netflix which has been great. I know prison documentary’s aren’t everyone’s scene, but I have learnt so much about various systems, cultures and people. It has been insightful to prison life generally, but also fascinating as a future therapist. It has been a highlight of our evenings to snuggle in bed and watch a couple!
We also rented the latest Jurassic Park for our date night the other week and I loved it. It was a little weird to be watching a dinosaur munching on a person’s arm whilst I was chowing down a chicken pathia, but I am so glad I finally saw it. I felt like despite it being fiction, it did make me a little emotional, as well as having the gripping “there’s a dinosaur right there” vibe that comes with the Jurassic park films. I would deffs recommend it.
Recently I have also loved watching The Voice again (but this time with the kids – they love it) and getting back into the new season of Call The Midwife – how inspiring please?
As a family we have watched Incredibles 2 (so funny), the new Mary Poppins at the Cinema, The Witches and Tooth Fairy. Coco and The Greatest Showman have been on a lot too (as has Peppa Pig) since grandma bought them for Christmas for us.
Reading
I was supposed to have reported at this point that as per my goal, I had finished a book – I haven’t! My goal is to try and do one a month, but I started with a really slow, difficult one that I wanted to read as extra knowledge for my course. Its called “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” by C.G.Jung and, whilst super interesting, it has been a slog and I am not even half way! I am into Carl Jung’s philosophies, but going forward, if I have any chance of reading more, I am thinking about just keeping it going alongside something easier to tackle and quicker to get through. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them – I like non-fiction, inspiring and self help type things – though I am wondering if I should branch out to crime stuff too?!
Listening To
I can’t stop listening to “Baby” by clean Bandit – it is one of those I crank up high every time i hear it and may or may not do a little latino dancing to! “Believer” by Imagine Dragons is another song I am loving this month and listen to on an almost daily basis – its powerful. This month I also rediscovered my Phantom of the Opera CD and I think Nath is loving that fact.
Visited
London! You can read about it here !
I also had a lovely 4 mile walk as I said over the fields with my pals a couple of weeks ago. It was all lovely and fun until Alice had the biggest meltdown towards the end, sat for a good 10 mins and refused to walk (she did bum shuffle instead – through the mud!), before she kicked me – twice! I once again love where I live, but not when the toddler has a meltdown in a muddy field. On these days I find my patience completely tested and I wonder what the heck life is all about! It is relentless and hard work sometimes and the struggle is real.
Bought
I bought quite a few things this month, including London T shirts for all the fam last weekend! I often wonder if I could have a no spend month, but I feel like the answer is the same as the answer to “I wonder if I could do Veganuary?” – both of which are a resounding “No'”! Somewhere and at some point in the month, I always seem to find a little bargain that I need to purchase (I think they call that an addiction!).
One of my favourite purchases this month was a reusable £2 shopping bag in Primark whilst we were in London last week. I love it because it’s roomy, was a bargainous 2 quid and is made from some pretty cool leopard print fabric – tots me! It is going to be useful for not only shopping, but beach days, swimming and a “night away shove everything in” bag.
This month I also bought a few things from the Zara Sale, which included some swanky new red leopard print trousers, a fluffy black jumper I have wanted for a while that finally went down to £5.99 and a cool retro T Shirt (which I might return as it looks small)! It took me a while to get them after a mix up at the post office, but I have them now and once I have tried them on and decide if I am keeping them, I will pop a post up.
January has been a really busy month with a few adventures. In some ways it has been a little relentless with a tantrum throwing, potty training 2 year old and personally it has also been one of deep reflection on a lot of things. I have found myself wondering some weeks if counselling is the right path for me!? Yes, I find it super interesting but some aspects of it make me feel a little switched off and the college I am at isnt the best facilitator (which is painful). I hope over the coming months, things settle and the question marks I have over aspects of my life (inc college) will become more clear.
